Psychological screening. The process of egg donation requires any woman to confront complex ethical, social as well as emotional issues. The process of screening is aimed at helping any potential egg donor to evaluate her desire to donate and to think carefully through every of these issues.
Any woman, who wants to become an egg donor, should have a chance to ask questions and express any concern of her. There are mental health professional available in most egg donating programs, with whom it is possible to talk about the woman’s life circumstances, her system of support, her feeling about the donation process, and about other related issues. Moreover, most programs require future egg donors to take psychological tests.
There is also another goal of conducting of psychological screening – it is to make sure that a woman will be able to fulfill the complex requirements of egg donation procedure. In case if a woman fails to follow instructions, she can endanger her health and jeopardize the whole egg donating procedure. Any egg donating program also tries to minimize the chance that a woman will have regrets or any kind of psychological problem, or that she will consider the procedure to be traumatic.
Anyway, before any woman makes her decision to take part in the egg donation program, she is to try to foresee how she will feel about donating her eggs and about the possibility that children will be crated, who are genetically related to her, and whom she may never even have a possibility to see. It may be necessary to discuss these issues with the woman’s spouse, some close relative of her, or with some trusted friend.
Therefore, any egg donating program is to offer a woman psychological counseling and support throughout the decision making and donation process. It can also be helpful to talk to some independent counselor, who is familiar with the infertility treatment issues. It should be kept in mind that the goal of counseling is neither to convince a woman to become an egg donor, nor to help her “get adjusted” to the demands of some definite egg donating program, but rather to better allow her to take the only right decision, whether she wished to donate her eggs.
No matter what their motivations are, most egg donors do not consider the process to be easy. Any woman, who really wants to become an egg donor, should take all advantage of counseling services, which are usually offered through the egg donating program, and she should also think who might serve as a good person of support.
Various organized religions hold different opinions about whether it is good and appropriate to use donor eggs as well as sperm inn the creation of children. In case if these points of view are important to any potential egg donor, she may need to consult a religious advisor before making her own decision.
The American Society for Reproductive Medicine considers that a woman should not better become an egg donor, in case if she:
Suffers from some serious psychological disorder;
Abuses either drugs or alcohol, or has several close relative, who do;
Currently takes any psychoactive medications;
Has over lived some significant stressful situation in her life;
Is being in an unstable marriage or relationship;
Was abused either in a physical or in a sexual way, has not received / and does not receive any kind of professional treatment;
Is not mentally capable of understanding, realizing and / or taking part in the egg donation process.
In addition, in case if any of the potential egg donor’s blood relative have any serious disorder of a psychiatric nature, the egg donating program should know about it, because there are some psychiatric disorders, which may be inherited.
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